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Climate Change Fight |OT|

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Pomerlaw

Pomerlaw

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Feb 25, 2018
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How do you explain our changing natural world to kids?

In a time where climate change makes it on to nearly every front page, it's clear we need to have frank conversations with our youth about the planet's future. But talking about climate change is difficult even for adults. It can be a divisive topic that leaves us feeling hopeless. Can you imagine the impact this has on our kids?

A recent study has shown that thinking and talking about climate change induces anxiety, and for the developing mind of a child these stressors can be particularly harmful to their mental health. So how do we talk to youth about the challenges our environment is facing, and more importantly, the solutions?
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Pure Spirit

Pure Spirit

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt
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Jul 7, 2019
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Nuclear power has got to be on the table. I'm pretty disappointed that Yang was the only candidate who recognizes this.

Despite the movies and tv shows, nuclear energy is remarkably safe from a statistical perspective. Coal fired plants kill (roughly) as many people per day as nuclear energy has killed in its entire history. But nuclear energy is like air travel, despite it being statistically far safer than alternatives, people are irrationally afraid of it.
 
ArkhamFantasy

ArkhamFantasy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,541
Pure Spirit said:
Nuclear power has got to be on the table. I'm pretty disappointed that Yang was the only candidate who recognizes this.

Despite the movies and tv shows, nuclear energy is remarkably safe from a statistical perspective. Coal fired plants kill (roughly) as many people per day as nuclear energy has killed in its entire history. But nuclear energy is like air travel, despite it being statistically far safer than alternatives, people are irrationally afraid of it.
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Its so demoralizing.
 

QuigleyMcShine

Member
Jan 29, 2018
9,383
Does anyone have any experiences to share getting residential solar? I finally have my non-starter house and have wanted solar panels for a while. The math seems to work out it's just a question of taking the hit to the savings account to pay for everything up front and have no electric bill right away, or go with a solar loan and save just a little bit monthly. The math also seems like it could get precarious if I need a new roof during the life of the panels.

I also wonder if it makes any sense to start small with just a few panels, then add on to the system in a few years?
 
Guddha

Guddha

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Sep 5, 2019
1,202
The 2020 election is going to be a make or break turning point for human civilization.
 

Deleted member 8561

user requested account closure
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Oct 26, 2017
11,284
Clathrate Gun Hypothesis is a meme that shouldn't at all be taken seriously, and is not taken seriously by anyone who actually studies carbon cycles or methane cycles.
 

Frankfurter

Member
Oct 27, 2017
848
QuigleyMcShine said:
Does anyone have any experiences to share getting residential solar? I finally have my non-starter house and have wanted solar panels for a while. The math seems to work out it's just a question of taking the hit to the savings account to pay for everything up front and have no electric bill right away, or go with a solar loan and save just a little bit monthly. The math also seems like it could get precarious if I need a new roof during the life of the panels.

I also wonder if it makes any sense to start small with just a few panels, then add on to the system in a few years?
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I assume you are in the US, so I can't really comment on most of your questions. But regarding starting small vs. going all in: usually it makes sense to go all in at the very beginning. There are certain costs which decrease relatively speaking with the size of a PV system (inverter, working hours, cable setup, installation of the electric meter etc.), which makes PV system cheaper the bigger they are.
 
DarthSontin

DarthSontin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,032
Pennsylvania
QuigleyMcShine said:
Does anyone have any experiences to share getting residential solar? I finally have my non-starter house and have wanted solar panels for a while. The math seems to work out it's just a question of taking the hit to the savings account to pay for everything up front and have no electric bill right away, or go with a solar loan and save just a little bit monthly. The math also seems like it could get precarious if I need a new roof during the life of the panels.

I also wonder if it makes any sense to start small with just a few panels, then add on to the system in a few years?
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We have been waiting 9 months to get ours because our utility company hates solar and does everything in their power to delay it.

If you think you'll need a new roof, you can either do it at the same time as the panels and get the 30% tax credit on it as well, or your installer could remove the panels when the roof is done for a fee (ours told us it would be $500).

You're best off doing it before the end of the year as the tax credit starts dropping from 30% to 25%.
 
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Pomerlaw

Pomerlaw

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Feb 25, 2018
8,536
Indonesian ban on clearing new swaths of forest to be made permanent
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  • A temporary moratorium that prohibits the issuance of new permits to clear primary and peat forests is set to be made permanent later this year.
  • Though largely ineffective in stemming deforestation in the first few years after its introduction in 2011, the moratorium has since 2016 been shored up by peat-protection regulations that have helped slow the loss of forest cover.
  • Environmental activists have welcomed the move to make the moratorium permanent, but say there's room to strengthen it, such as by extending it to include secondary forests.
  • They've also called for the closing of a loophole that allows primary and peat forests to be razed for plantations of rice, sugarcane and other crops deemed important to national food security.
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Deleted member 9399

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Oct 26, 2017
3,925
Attending the Toronto global climate strike next week, but still feeling a fair bit demoralized after the other climate model thread. Been making strides in my personal habits to live more sustainably but there's only so much to do on a personal level.
 
FliX

FliX

Master of the Reality Stone
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Oct 25, 2017
9,856
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Mr.F said:
Attending the Toronto global climate strike next week, but still feeling a fair bit demoralized after the other climate model thread. Been making strides in my personal habits to live more sustainably but there's only so much to do on a personal level.
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Government legislation is 100% the way to go. And in order to get that we need to show the politicians that we mean it by showing up in meaningful numbers on Friday.
 
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Pomerlaw

Pomerlaw

Erarboreal
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Feb 25, 2018
8,536
Greta Thunberg to Congress :
"Please save your praise. We don't want it. Don't invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it because it doesn't lead to anything.

If you want advice for what you should do, invite scientists, ask scientists for their expertise. We don't want to be heard. We want the science to be heard."
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Pomerlaw

Pomerlaw

Erarboreal
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Feb 25, 2018
8,536
Alcotholic said:
Greta is fantastic. It's also sad that she has to be the voice of reason and is forced to grow up because our world leaders won't.
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Some right wing politicians assholes have attacked her saying she doesn't know what she is talking about. I really like how she is shielding herself from those attacks by not making it about her but about the science.
 
TrueSloth

TrueSloth

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Oct 27, 2017
6,065
Pomerlaw said:
Some right wing politicians assholes have attacked her saying she doesn't know what she is talking about. I really like how she is shielding herself from those attacks by not making it about her but about the science.
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Of course they did. Kids can be just as wise as the rest of us. Its good she is deflecting to the scientists.
 
Astronut325

Astronut325

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,948
Los Angeles, CA
Not sure if this deserves its own thread:
Indonesia arrests around 200 as thick smog from forest fires reaches hazardous levels
The country's National Police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said Monday that 185 people had been arrested across six provinces hit by fires and four corporations were under investigation. He added that "99% of the forest and land fires occurred due to human factors."
Fires and ensuing smog are a persistent problem during the summer months caused by slash and burn techniques to clear the land -- the same practice that led to fires in the Brazilian Amazon earlier this year.
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ore than 600 schools have closed in Malaysia because of the air pollution, affecting hundreds of thousands of students, according to the Singapore-based Straits Times. Schools in parts of Indonesia's smog-hit Sumatra and Borneo islands have also shut, with air quality considered "hazardous" to health in several areas.
Authorities are now scrambling for a solution to the crisis. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Tuesday that 52 planes were conducting water bombing operations against the forest fires and 5,500 additional personnel were deployed in haze-hit Riau province on Sumatra.
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This also affects Singapore:
 
Old_King_Coal

Old_King_Coal

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Nov 1, 2017
920
Saw this on the Guardian's coverage of the strikes today. Is it feasible? Any drawbacks? I don't know anything about this kinda stuff.
 
ShadowSwordmaster

ShadowSwordmaster

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Oct 25, 2017
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Check Greta's Twitter account if you want to see the scale the Climate Strike today. She has been retweeting a lot of stuff around the world.
 

Deleted member 11113

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Well done to everyone who attended the strikes and marches last Friday! If you want to keep the good feeling and momentum going, please join Extinction Rebellion (thread here). On the 7th of October there will be a global rebellion with occupations of major cities worldwide (New York, Berlin, London etc.). It should be very exciting, so join XR now and be a part of the change!
 
Guddha

Guddha

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Sep 5, 2019
1,202
Goldman Sachs just dropped an extensive report on climate change and it's just as dire as you imagined.
Goldman gave some fairly stark warnings about potential outcomes:

More frequent, more intense, and longer-lasting heatwaves. The consequences will affect human health, productivity, economic activity, and agriculture. "Higher surface temperatures could exacerbate the warming process by causing permafrost to melt, releasing further methane and CO2 into the atmosphere."

Destructive weather events, including storms, winds, flooding and fires. It's not just New York, Tokyo and Lagos. "Other major low-lying coastal or already flood-prone cities include Shanghai, Dhaka, Mumbai and Karachi – each of which has a population of 15 million people or more."

Changing disease patterns. "Warmer temperatures could cause disease vectors to migrate from the tropics to regions where people have less immunity; this is true not only for viruses like malaria and dengue fever but also for water-borne and food-borne diseases."

Shifting agricultural patterns and food shortages. "Livestock could be affected by higher temperatures and reduced water supplies. Ocean acidification is likely to put stress on aquatic populations and affect current fishing patterns. Some of these changes are already underway. Some climate scientists, for example, estimate that coral reefs will be all but extinct over the course of the century due to ocean acidification."

Water. "Half of the world's population will live in water-stressed areas as soon as 2025," Goldman notes, citing the World Health Orgnization. "Even in non-stressed areas, the quality of surface water could deteriorate as more rain and storms drive erosion and the release of toxins. These dynamics could affect everything from the availability of drinking water for people to a shortage of water for livestock and crops (with negative effects for the food supply) to decreases in hydroelectric power generation."
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Pomerlaw

Pomerlaw

Erarboreal
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Feb 25, 2018
8,536
New climate march record.

500 000 people in Montreal!

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FliX

FliX

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Oct 25, 2017
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LegendofJoe said:
If you have land plant empress trees, a single acre of these trees can absorb up to 100 tons of CO2 annually. They are carbon sucking machines.


"The Empress Splendor tree sequesters 11 times more carbon than any other tree. In fact, it is so efficient that the average North American would only need to plant 1 acre of trees to offset their carbon footprint for fifty years."

Fuck carbon neutral, go carbon negative my ERA brothers and sisters.
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How legit is this as an investment? They seem to be making big waves as far as my google fu can tell me, just not sure overall about the efficacy of the company. Anyone got an idea or can point me towards more reading on the matter?
 
AwakenedCloud

AwakenedCloud

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Oct 27, 2017
1,815
Can anyone recommend some good YouTube channels (or any online resources) for getting up to speed and making comprehensive data driven arguments for climate change? This has been important to me for a while, but I realize that if I'm going to butt heads with others about it, I need to be in tip-top shape.

I got blindsided at the gym today when one of my friends pulled out a chart on his phone. I didn't have much time to analyze it, but the crux of what he was getting at was the the maximums and minimum temperatures aren't changing. It was akin to this one, but went back to the 1920s.

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I wasn't too worried about it, since I know that our climate crisis entails a lot more than just absolute maxes and minimums, but it still bothers me I didn't have a counterpoint to this direct argument.

I apologize in advance, if this is the wrong thread for this.
 
FliX

FliX

Master of the Reality Stone
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Oct 25, 2017
9,856
Metro Detroit
Something else everyone can and should consider.
Most (all?) energy providers have the option to choose green energy and pay more per kWh to support green energy production and the installation of additional capacity.
I've always set it to the maximum possible. So nominally I am 100% renewable on my personal energy usage at home. 🌱😎
 
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Pomerlaw

Pomerlaw

Erarboreal
Banned
Feb 25, 2018
8,536
New North Carolina energy plan cuts greenhouse gases from electricity 70% by 2030

Gov. Roy Cooper accepted plans for cutting emissions of climate-warming gases Friday while critics who want the state to do more looked on and disrupted some of the pageantry.

The state's clean energy plan calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from electric power production to 70% below 2005 levels by 2030 and getting to carbon neutrality — removing as much carbon as is emitted — by 2050.

"Our children and our grandchildren are depending on us to turn the tide of climate change," Cooper said.


Adopting the changes will lead to economic prosperity as the state further embraces clean energy and the good-paying jobs the sector creates, Cooper said.
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